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Letter to the Editor - City of Kidder LLC? - January 18

Wed, 01/18/2017 - 1:19pmadmin1

By:

G. Robert Bauer II

City of Kidder LLC?

Well last week, I attended the city Aldermen meeting for Kidder and well to be honest I was a bit surprised. Though I had heard about what goes on at the meetings, I had read what went on, but I never would have believed it if I had not gone. One of the topics of discussion was to raise the price of permit fees. At an earlier meeting someone asked “Is it right that it cost the same for a fence permit as for a house?”

Well, the quick answer is of course not there is typically a lot more involved in building a house then a fence so one would expect that the fees would be more. So the question is how do you decide how much more you should charge. One suggestion was the number of hours spent building the more hours spent the more money you pay. Second was materials, the more the cost the more you pay. Both to me seemed silly and very wrong, and I suggested that it be based on the number of feet of fence and the square feet of house. After all it takes more time to inspect a house then a fence and in the case of the fence for instance it takes longer to inspect the longer it is.

That is when the dropped the bombshell that nearly made me fall out of my chair when they said, “We don’t inspect any of the build we just make sure it doesn’t interfere with the utilities.” “Yea the whole thing takes about five minutes.”

If that is the case why are you discussing charging the same fee for every permit, charge what it costs the city. To which the alderman that was suggesting the differences in fees, “Well if we did that the city won’t make any money.” Then later added, “If you are building a 200,000 dollar house you can afford 200 dollars more for a permit.

Aldermen and woman of Kidder, THE CITY IS NOT A “FOR PROFIT” BUSINESS, STOP TRYING TO RUN IT LIKE IT IS.

One last thing could you imagine pulling up to get gas, and being told “We are going to charge you more for gas because you have a more expensive car and you can clearly afford it.”

It is time to STOP THE STUPID! And make our aldermen and women do the job they were elected to do not the job they WANT TO DO!